Psalm 130

A song of ascents.

¹     Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
²          O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
³     If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
⁴     But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
⁵     I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
⁶     My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
⁷     O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
⁸     He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

Introduction:  How are you at waiting?  I walked into a waiting room the other day.  The room was full.  Every chair was taken. I thought. Oh no!  This is going to take a while.  If you’re like me, you’re not very good at waiting.

We wait for all kinds of things.  For a friend to come by.  For the dentist to stop drilling.  We wait to hear what the doctor has to say.  We wait for our child or grandchild to be born.  We wait to see who’s going to win the big game. Much of our lives are spent waiting.

Of course there are times when we try to do something about our waiting.  Maybe we call that friend to ask them to arrive sooner.  Maybe we tell the person up front, I don’t have a lot of time to wait.  There is some waiting we can do something about.  But sometimes we just have to wait.  And that can be hard.

Advent is a season about waiting.  It’s about God’s people of all times.  People like you and me waiting for the Lord.  To come, to act, to hear, to answer, to save.  And that can be hard for so many reasons.  I like this psalm because it helps us in our waiting.  It starts in the depths and it ends with us waiting with hope.

Psalm 130

A song of ascents.

¹     Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
²          O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

In what depths have you cried out to the Lord?   In Worry or Fears Sorrow, depression or Guilt

This believer was down in the depths because he saw his sinfulness. In Romans, we hear the Apostle Paul cry out from the same depths.  O what a wretched man I am?!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Of course, we might not attribute our ‘feeling down’ with sin.   Yet isn’t there always some kind of connection.  The results of my bad choices, my failures to listen to God’s Word.  Or we find ourselves on the receiving end of someone else’s.  I’ve been there and so have you.  And then there are those times when we look around at this world with its corruption and evil.  It’s discouraging.  I don’t know about you, but I have prayed, How long, O Lord.  How long?

And sometimes we feel the very opposite of the psalmist.  We feel so down we lose the energy to pray.   Maybe we pull away from the Lord.  But the psalmist shows us the way.  Turn to Him.

³     If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
⁴     But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

Turn to the Lord.  But why would the Lord want anything to do with us?  Think of the word used here for our sin.  In Hebrew it describes something twisted and perverted.  Well just imagine that God kept a record of those things.  If we sinned just two times an hour over eighty five years that equals about 750,000 offenses against the Lord.  Oh but I sleep !  Well that makes it about half a million.  With that on our record who could stand?  Who could stand before God and be accepted?  We’d hear no answer to our prayers but the deafening sound of silence.  We’d have nothing to wait for from God but the back of His hand.

But with you there is forgiveness.  Think of how good we are at keeping a detailed record of how somehow has hurt us or wronged us.  We may have forgiven them but years later we still have no problem telling the tale.  God’s forgiveness is totally different.  It wipes the slate clean.  God remembers our sins no more.  And why?  The psalmist could only see it from a distance.  The virgin with child.  The Lamb of God.  By his wounds we are healed.  He could only see it from a distance. Jesus. The Son of God come to be our brother. In him is our forgiveness because of this.  He took our guilt and paid it’s awful price.  He took our guilt and made things right.  with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared.  Yes, feared –not feared like we might fear a tornado, but feared as in this: Lord you forgave me!  Yes, You forgave me!  It’s awesome, dear Christian.  Don’t take it for granted.  That brings us to heart of the matter.

⁵     I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in his word I put my hope.

What was this man waiting for?  When you read a little further you see.  He calls it Full redemption.  He was waiting for the Lord to come and bring an end to this evil age and make all things new.  To bring that time when there will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain.  No more sin in our world and in our hearts.  For this I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in his word I put my hope. 

But we don’t just wait for that Day. I have sat with dear people and prayed.  Lord help us here and now.  I have prayed and waited for the Lord to act, to show us his way.  And there have been anxious times of waiting.  You know such times, yearning like the psalmist:

⁶     My soul waits for the Lord
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

But in his Word we can put our hope.  Words of promise like this:  I am the Lord who takes hold of your right hand and says to you.  Do not fear. I will help you.  (Is 41:13)

Then think of this coming Sunday. We will come to the altar and wait for the Lord.  We will wait for the Lord to come to us with his true body and blood he once gave for us and shed for us on a cross.  So much does he want you to know his love and forgiveness.  And in his word, we put our hope.  His word that invites us and assures us.  Take eat this is my body given for you.  Drink from it… this cup is the new testament in my blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. In his word we put our hope.

Up to now the psalmist pretty much speaks to the Lord.  He gives us a window to his soul.  I’m in the depths.  Yet, how blessed I am to be forgiven.  Now I wait.  I anxiously look forward to your day. O Lord.  But now he turns his attention to his people.  O Israel, he pleads. Well his words are also for us who know what it’s like to be down in the depths.  These words are also for us who wait on the Lord.

put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

AMEN